1920s Alldays & Onions Ice Cream Tricycle

THE ORIGIN OF ICE CREAM: The man who invented ice cream was a Negro by the name of Jackson, and in the early part of the present century kept a small confectionery store. Cold custards, which were cooled after being made by setting them on a cake of ice, were very fashionable, and Jackson conceived the idea of freezing them, which he did by placing the ingredients in a tin bucket and completely covered with ice. Each bucket contained a quart, and was sold for $1. It immediately became popular, and the inventor soon enlarged his store, and when he died left a considerable fortune A good many tried to follow his example, and ice cream was hawked about the streets, being wheeled along very much as the hokey-pokey carts are now, but none of them succeeded in obtaining the flavor that Jackson had in his product.

– New York Times, March 11, 1894 (p. 18)

Despite American claims to have invented it (above) in the early 1800s, the earliest record of ice cream is in China in the Tang period (A.D. 618-907). Buffalo, cows’ and goats’ milk was heated and allowed to ferment. This ‘yoghurt’ was then mixed with flour for thickening, camphor for flavour and ‘refrigerated’ before being served. King Tang of Shang had a staff of 2,271 people which included 94 ice-men.

The early methods of freezing food need some explanation. Freezing of foods was achieved by mixing salt with ice. Mixing salt with ice reduces the freezing point and it is quite easy to achieve temperatures lower than -14C. Just who discovered the process is unknown, but it was probably invented by the Chinese. It was written about in India in the 4th century, and the first technical description of ice making using various salts was by an Arab medical historian Ibn Abu Usaybi (A.D. 1230-1270).

The process arrived in Europe in 1503 – in Italy – where it was considered a chemists party trick, using various acids, water and salts. However, it was not used for food until water ices (sorbets) appeared in the 1660s in Naples, Florence, Paris and Spain. Ices made with sweetened milk first appeared in Naples in 1664.

In this country Ice Cream was served at a banquet for the Feast of St. George at Windsor Castle in 1671. It was such a rare and exotic dish that only the guests on King Charles II’s table had ‘one plate of white strawberries and one plate of iced cream.’ All the other guests had to watch and marvel at what the Royal table were eating.

London’s Italian community started over 1000 years ago and was well established by the nineteenth century: The book Arrivi states that: ‘In the years from 1841 to 1881 the residents of the London Italian quarter of Holborn were mainly frame makers, statue makers, ice cream makers, and organists.’

Ice cream manufacture was simplified with the introduction of the ice cream machine in 1843, and vendors with handcarts or horse drawn carts were soon selling ice cream in the cobbled streets of England. Ice was shipped from Norway to London and other major ports and taken in canal barges down the canals. It was then stored in ice houses, from where it was sold to ice cream makers. This burgeoning ice cream industry, run mainly by Italians, started an influx of workers from southern Italy and the Ticino area of Switzerland to England. The huge ice house pits built near Kings Cross by Carlo Gatti in the 1850s still exist, and have recently been opened to the public at The London Canal Museum.

The commercial tricycle was developed in England in the 1870s. It was commonly used by grocers, bakers, druggists and other tradesmen. As bicycles evolved and, with mass-production, became cheaper to manufacture, most small business needing to make local deliveries used a carrier bicycle or tricycle. As well as delivering goods to and from local businesses, the carrier tricycle also replaced the vendor’s cart which had previously been used to sell products direct to the public.

Walls introduced an ice cream tricycle in 1923. It was so successful that they bought a fleet of them the following year. By 1939, in London, there were 4,000 ice cream tricycles.

Warrick & Co of Reading was the largest supplier of commercial carrier tricycles. Elswick and Pashley soon started providing them too. Though those three companies dominated the market, many smaller companies made a standard carrier tricycle, but would adapt its delivery box according to a customers needs.

Alldays & Onions, established around 1650 next to Dudley Castle, is Great Britain’s oldest existing company. It no longer makes vehicles, but is still trading now, 365 years on. The company started making this style of carrier tricycle as early as 1900, when they were one of the country’s top cycle manufacturers with government contracts for their military bicycles. Alldays adapted their own carrier tricycle’s standard wooden body to make a wooden ice cream box body with insulated interior. Walls’ ice cream fleet included both Warrick and Alldays tricycles.

Carrier tricycles are still used all over the world, especially in India as goods carriers, with loads of up to 1,000 lb; and throughout South East Asia where they’re used for roadside food preparation and sales. In recent years years, there has been a resurgence of interest in ice cream tricycles in Great Britain, with new ones now being manufactured to meet demand. The early original ones are the most interesting models. The Warrick and the later Pashley with plastic body are the most common, but this 1920s Alldays Ice Cream Tricycle with ornate wooden body is one of the most sought-after versions.

1920s Alldays & Onions Ice Cream Tricycle

Based on Alldays ‘Standard Carrier’

26 x 2″ Wheels

(Now sold)

As you can see by comparing the photos with the illustration from the Alldays catalogue, the Alldays Ice Cream Tricycle was essentially the ‘Standard’ Carrier with a more elaborately decorated body. Distinguishing features of the Alldays carrier chassis are a lower strut which extends all the way to the rear axle (Warrick’s lower strut terminates at the bottom bracket); and a straight forward seat tube (Warrick’s bends at the lower end).

This example is in excellent preserved condition, having been restored many years ago and used only for display since. I’ll soon give it a good cleaning, repaint the rear mudguard, fit an inflator pump and new tyres, and replace the missing handlebar grip. It also needs a sign made for the front to read STOP ME AND BUY ONE.

It will then be ready to start earning its keep selling ice creams once again.

1920 ALLDAYS BICYCLE CATALOGUE

Alldays & Onions Ltd

Great Western Works, Birmingham

ALLDAYS & ONIONS LTD

The company was founded by a family of craftsmen named Onions who manufactured bellows in their shed in the shadow of Dudley Castle. This was in 1650, during the reign of King James the First.

By 1770 the company was trading under the name J C Onions and, having established a virtual monopoly in and around Birmingham, the company soon began manufacturing portable forges in addition to bellows. During the 19th century the company was appointed bellow makers to her Majesty’s ordinance and increased production, supplying forges and bellows to the new British colonies abroad.

In 1885 a merger with a local rival manufacturer William Alldays saw the foundation of a new company, Alldays & Onions Ltd and advances in technology allowed the company to expand into new areas of production including water turbines, centrifugal fans, positive pressure blowers, pneumatic hammers, cupolas, furnaces, smithy equipment and a huge range of cycles and tricycles.

Cycles were made under the name ‘Alldays Cycles.’ They started making cars in Birmingham in 1898, and motorcycles in 1903 at their Great Western Works. When WW1 ended the company produced the Enfield-Alldays series LC, but in due course vehicle production ceased and the company looked to different products for survival.

After World War II, with changing market requirements, Alldays & Onions Ltd establish itself as a market leader in the manufacture of centrifugal fans expanding into the field of dust collecting and chemical engineering. In 1969 the company merged with rival fan company J.C.Peacock forming Alldays Peacock & Co Ltd and in the 1980s the company expanded its factory in Weston-Super-Mare in Somerset and began selling abroad. In 2005 Alldays Peacock was purchased by the world’s leading fan-maker, the German-based Witt Group and became part of Witt UK; manufacturing moved to Halifax, West Yorkshire.

Though they no longer make bicycles, it’s refreshing to see that this manufacturing company has survived, with various mergers and changes, for around 365 years.